From the Life in the Sikh Kingdoms collection ·
The full story
The Koh-i-Noor’s departure from Punjab was part of conquest, not an ordinary exchange of gifts. In 1849, the British East India Company forced the young Maharaja Duleep Singh to surrender his kingdom and the diamond. Historic Royal Palaces explains that the Treaty of Lahore required the jewel to be handed to Queen Victoria.
This card imagines the moment before departure: a small point of light in an open, lavishly decorated case. The jewel occupies very little space, yet everything around it seems to draw attention to what is about to be lost. Compare this image with the “Koh-i-Noor Armlet” card: one evokes possession and display, the other separation and memory.
The case, room, documents and appearance of the diamond are artistic inventions, not a reconstruction of its packing or removal. The historical source tells the story of the child Maharaja whose life was changed by the same events that carried the jewel away.
Research & sources
Follow the historical record behind this card. Campaign artwork is an interpretation; an object’s ownership, appearance or a person’s likeness needs its own evidence.
Place it in the wider story.
The Anglo-Sikh Wars and the loss of sovereignty ↗
The reading archive is public. Open your portrait to see the cards you have earned and redeem them into your collection.
VIEW MY CARDS